Now that’s more like it…

Now that’s more like it… February 18, 2016

homelessAll over the United States, poverty and homelessness have been and are being criminalized (as if that makes it stop! Bad Poverty! No biscuit!)  I’m not sure where folks think a family sleeping in a tent are going to go if you kick them out of their tent in the middle of winter.

But this is interesting.

Apparently Portland, Oregon’s Mayor Hales has made it legal to sleep on the sidewalk in Portland between 9pm and 7am.  And now Willamette Week reporters have gone out to test local reaction to folks sleeping on public sidewalks and in public parks (it’s not actually legal to sleep in the park, but they have an unofficial policy of looking the other way.)   They had some light harassment in one area and it was just not a big deal in other areas.

I’d like to see how this actually plays out in practice.  It’s one thing for young interns to experiment; I’ll be looking forward to what happens when actual homeless people show up in public, and the community gets a view of the extent of the poverty in their community.


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